Compendium
by Flowers for the Cynic
Summary: Perhaps the romantics of the world might even dare call it fate, but no. It hadn't been love at first sight. He had called her at least ten different names before he had learned her real name. So no, it hadn't been love at first sight. But Itachi had certainly been intrigued. A compendium of oneshots. ItaSaku
1. Chapter 1: Coffee Encounters

**DISCLAIMER: All Naruto characters belong to Kishimoto**

Author's Note: I've said before that I am open to several Sakura pairings and while that is true, this particular one is among my favorites. This will be a drabble series composed of random oneshots of ItaSaku.

This is rated T but that's just to cover all my bases for future prompts.

ALSO: As stated on one of my author's note for a later chapter (Ch. 3), **I accept prompts from readers**. When you leave a review, just tack in any of your prompt suggestions somewhere along the way. Once again, prompt suggestions are welcomed with open arms.

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><p><span>Coffee Encounters<span>

He remembered the first time she walked into the café. It had been the beginning of April and he could even distinctly recall the cherry blossom tree outside finally blooming to its fullest. Perhaps the romantics of the world might even dare call it fate that he met a girl with hair the color of cherry blossoms the afternoon of that same day. But Uchiha Itachi would have to disagree. After all, he couldn't say that he fell in love with her the moment she walked through the café's doors, the tinkling of the bells that signaled a new customer acting as the preamble to their love story's melody.

No. It hadn't been love at first sight. He had called her at least ten different names before he had learned her real name. So no, it hadn't been love at first sight. But Itachi had certainly been intrigued.

* * *

><p>Wearing a dress perfect for the spring weather, her entrance caused quite a stir. Patrons of the café shuffled their newspapers lower, glanced up from their laptops, and halted in the act of bringing cups of coffee to their lips.<p>

Noticing the sudden change in everyone's behavior, Itachi paused in the process of putting a foam of milk on a customer's order to peer at whatever had attracted the others' attention.

Itachi had several expectations in mind. Perhaps an idol had entered the café, but that idea was easily tossed away when he registered the lack of prepubescent-like screaming that commonly accompanied an idol. Maybe someone of political importance? But where were the security and the chatter of business? Within a second, several ideas had taken residence in Itachi's head.

But when he finally caught sight of the person, she was nothing at all as he had expected.

Flushed alabaster skin from walking outside and a shy smile. But all those were secondary characteristics when placed in comparison to her hair and eyes. With hair as pink as cherry blossoms and with eyes a peculiar shade of green, her dress may have been white but she was surely a very colorful person.

She wasn't gorgeous. She wouldn't be the kind of girl that'd be in magazine covers nor was she wearing anything remotely revealing that would inspire lecherous gazes. But in no way was she ugly. On the contrary, Itachi had to admit that in her own way, she was beautiful. Despite her vibrant coloring, she didn't possess the kind of beauty that was loud and asked to be acknowledged. Hers was quieter, perhaps as shy as the way she looked. It was the kind of beautiful that fluttered away too quickly and left a person wondering in daze where he ought to begin the chase in order to see it once more.

She was beautiful but if you blink a second too fast or too slow, you might not just notice. It's a good thing that Itachi liked to pay attention.

"What can I get for you ojou-chan?" By now, all the other customers had returned to what they had been originally doing. Before he could be caught staring, Itachi resumed to make the coffees lined up on the inside counter. He would let Shisui handle the girl. Itachi's cousin worked the register because according to him, Itachi always acted like an emotionless gentleman. A gentleman, but also emotionless. Shisui said that Itachi would only succeed in scaring away the customers if he worked anything but the coffee machines.

Though he wasn't looking, Itachi could sense the smile that accompanied the girl's words. Shisui seemed to have that effect on people. "A mocha to go, please."

"One mocha coming right up," Shisui proclaimed happily.

As he wrote the girl's order on the cup, Shisui took the time to examine the girl in front of him while asking, "And could I have your name, ojou-chan?"

"Sakura," she answered.

Shisui blinked but shook his head. "Well, Sakura-chan, after you've tasted my cousin's coffee, you'll never want to go to another café again. Plus, you'll have the joy of getting to see me each time," he added with a wink.

Sakura laughed softly, her smile causing the corners of her eyes to wrinkle and Shisui just couldn't help the next words that popped out of his mouth. "So…kawaii."

The girl arched a brow but otherwise, did not comment. Shisui wanted to groan aloud. She probably thought he was some sort of creep now. Swallowing awkwardly, he proceeded, "Uh…we'll have your order ready over there in a bit, Sakura-chan."

Thankfully, Sakura still looked every bit amused as she accepted the change and moved to stand at the corner. But not before glancing at the name on the small plaque pinned to his shirt and saying, "Arigato, Shisui-san."

Shisui could be excused for the light brush of pink on his cheeks.

And in perhaps the shortest wait for a coffee that Sakura had ever experienced, her name was being called out.

"Sakura-san."

Moving deftly to the counter to retrieve her coffee, Itachi offered the necessary words that Shisui always reminded him to tell the customers. "Arigato and have a nice rest of the day."

"Arigato." He had not expected the customer to return his words with another "thank you." Most simply shied away or tended to be intimidated by Itachi that they simply nodded and offered him a weak, if not forced smile.

Looking up from the next coffee order he had already begun, he was surprised to see the pink-haired girl. She gave him one last smile before setting off to depart.

So her name was Sakura? Perhaps her parents had simply been unimaginative or perhaps they had been surprised when their daughter had been born with strands of pink atop her head. Either way, a big part of Itachi could not believe that a couple would name a pink-haired child Sakura.

"She's cute, isn't she?" Shisui said while leaning against one of the coffee machines.

"Hn."

"Think I have a shot with someone as cute as her?"

"Hn."

Shisui sighed exasperatedly at his cousin. "If you don't think she's cute then you really need to get laid, Itachi."

"Hn."

It would not matter what he thought. If the girl decided to return to their café, then she'll soon become another regular customer to memorize along with her regular order. She'll just be another person in the long list of names that Itachi calls out from morning to night.

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><p>Itachi didn't see her until another two weeks later. Wearing another dress, she walked in. Some of the patrons looked up, but most of the regulars remembered her and continued with their own private affairs.<p>

"Konnichiwa!" Shisui greeted. In the two weeks since he had last seen her, Shisui had come to the conclusion that she looked like a princess. A very colorful princess. "Another mocha to go?" he asked, prepared to write the order down.

"Iie. Not this time. A caramel macchiato, please," she amended.

Nodding, he wrote down her order. "I haven't seen you for a while."

"Do you promise not to be upset if I tell you the reason why?" she asked playfully.

Shisui raised a brow but nodded with a smile.

Leaning forward as if she was planning to impart some kind of dangerous secret, she whispered, "I tried out a bunch of other coffee shops for two weeks."

Shisui pretended to look aghast. "I can't believe you didn't take my word for it when I said that we had the best coffee in town!"

"I know, I know." She put her palms up in a mock gesture of peace. "But I ended up back here, so I suppose everything turned out your way in the end."

Laughing, Shisui agreed and asked for her name. He didn't want to accidentally put the wrong name on her cup even though he was pretty sure he already knew her name. After all, it was hard to forget someone with pink hair.

But when she offered her name, Shisui wasn't sure if had misheard. "What was that again?" he asked.

"Shiro," she stated with a sly smile.

Odd. Shisui could have sworn her name was Sakura.

But he didn't argue since someone else was in line behind Saku–Shiro-chan. Waving her to the side, Shisui just shook his head in confusion. He must be getting old.

"Shiro-san."

Itachi was slightly puzzled when the pink-haired girl was the one who moved to take the drink. Sakura smiled at him and in turn, he blinked not once, but three times at her. Hadn't her name been Sakura?

Itachi was just about to inquire when she leaned forward to peer at his clothes. Knitting her brows, she said, "You don't have a nametag. How am I supposed to thank you properly if I don't know your name?"

None of the other customers had ever asked for his name and Itachi was a bit taken aback. Unlike Shisui, he never wore a nametag because he worked the coffee machines. He didn't take part in the casual conversations that occurred regularly at the register.

And why did it matter if she knew his name? Weren't pleasantries nothing more but attempts to fulfill the societal expectations of being kind? Surely she didn't need to know his name to do so.

Completely forgetting his intended question, Itachi smirked and grunted, "Hn."

* * *

><p>She visited the Uchihas' quaint little café four days later on a Friday. It was a very busy day and it was lunchtime and people seemed to prefer coffee over actual food.<p>

When Itachi called out the name, "Hajime-san," he barely registered the person who took the cup of Americano from the counter. That was, until he heard his own name being returned.

"Arigato, Itachi-san."

Itachi snapped his head upwards so quickly that he may have hurt his neck in the process. But by the time he had looked up to search for the telltale signs of pink, he only caught a glimpse of her profile as she exited through the door.

Looking to Shisui because he would be the only reason why she would know his name, Itachi narrowed his eyes when his cousin waved sheepishly at him.

* * *

><p>Itachi was having an incredibly taxing day. He did not know how (but he will be sure to find out who did it, so that he could throttle them on a later day), but somehow, his fangirls had located his workplace. Hordes of them had come barreling in early (<em>too<em> early) this morning. Itachi much preferred when the customer shuffled away nervously and quickly upon retrieving the designated coffee. Anything was better than the shrill voices of fangirls constantly asking for his number and address.

Sighing, Itachi was more than glad when the day had began to dwindle into quietness.

The tinkling of the bell above the door indicated a new customer, specifically, the pink-haired girl.

But before she could reach the register to order, another patron entered the premises. Instead of heading towards the counter as expected, the man surprised everyone when he dropped in front of the pink-haired girl and bellowed, "Haruno-san!"

Said girl blinked and Itachi tucked away the new knowledge of her family name into the confines of his memories.

"Haruno-san! Please be my girlfriend!" The suddenness of the question caught Itachi's attention wholly and he registered Shisui coughing in surprise as well.

"Lee-san," she began.

He had a bowl-cut hair and was wearing an odd match of a green running suit with orange leg warmers. But his most prominent features were his eyebrows. Bushy and dark, had his eyes not been big as well, his eyebrows would have surely hidden them away.

"Lee-san," she repeated. Looking softly at the boy, she shook her head with a kind smile.

But the boy didn't seem hindered nor overly letdown. Instead, he stood from the ground and positioned a thumbs-up before yelling, "Do not worry, Haruno-san! I will strive to be more youthful so that I may become deserving to call himself your boyfriend! By the power of youth, I promise this. And if I cannot become your boyfriend next time, I will do two hundred pushups as punishment."

Sweatdropping, she watched Lee run out of the café with every intention of improving his youth.

Meanwhile, Shisui had caught the slightly disgruntled look adorning his cousin's face since the boy with thick eyebrows had asked their pink-haired princess to his girlfriend. Knowing that he ought to nurture even the littlest of emotions displayed by his cousin, Shisui walked up to Itachi and whispered, "If you don't act soon, she'll end up marrying that bushy-brow sooner or later."

Shisui had the pleasure of watching his cousin's ears turn pink and mumble something about needing to make coffee.

Needless to say, Itachi barely glanced up when "Ryuko-san" took her order and thanked him by his name.

Three more times that week, she visited the coffee shop, each time ordering a different drink. On the third time, Shisui approached Itachi as she departed with her coffee.

Wiping his hands on his apron, Shisui said, "You know…she's never given the same name twice. Makes me wonder what her name really is."

Itachi grunted in agreement. "Perhaps you should ask her," he suggested.

Shisui shook his head. "I think you should do it."

Itachi raised a brow inquiringly, silently asking why. But Shisui just laughed and clapped him on the back.

Shisui had seen the softer look that Itachi adopted whenever he served their nameless (or should he say, nameful) customer her coffee. It was like the ever-present stoicism that Itachi always wore was peeled away with every meeting. Besides, she was the only one who can look Itachi straight in the eyes without turning into some weird fangirl. In turn, she was one of the few people outside their family that Itachi allowed to call him by his first name.

Itachi may not know it yet but he and…their multi-named customer were meant for each other.

* * *

><p>"Ne, Sasuke-kun," she said. "I forgot something in the car. Can you go ahead and order for me already?"<p>

Sasuke nodded and handed her the car keys. Before she could step out, he asked, "The usual?"

Smiling, she nodded.

Unknown to the two of them, the two other Uchihas working at the café had watched the entire exchange with deep interest.

"Sasu-chan! You know Shizuku-chan?" Shisui asked; he had used the name she had given on her last visit.

Sasuke frowned. "Don't call me that. And what are you talking about? Shizuku?"

Nodding enthusiastically, Shisui said, "The girl you were with. She comes here a lot."

"Her name's not Shizuku."

"We are aware of that, Sasuke."

Sasuke looked towards Itachi who had approached the register to join in the conversation. "Aniki," he greeted.

"She always offers a different name with each visit," Itachi explained.

Smirking, Sasuke placed his hands in his pockets. "Sounds just like something she would do."

"We'd be much obliged if you could tell us her real name," Itachi continued.

Recognizing that he possessed a very vital piece of information, Sasuke smirked even further. "Why don't you ask her yourselves?" he dared to both Shisui and his aniki. "In the meantime, I'll have a black coffee and she'll have a white chocolate mocha."

Itachi bristled at Sasuke's refusal to help but just as he prepared to make the two coffees, something about what Sasuke said stopped him.

"How do you know what it is she wants to order?"

Sasuke looked confused. "What do you mean? It's her usual."

"Shizuku-san does not have a usual."

"Probably because Shizuku doesn't exist."

"Hn." Sasuke could be very frustrating at times.

"Sasuke-kun!" Walking to said boy's side was the current subject of conversation. She greeted Shisui on the way before stopping to stand beside Sasuke. Bumping her hip to his, she asked, "Did you get my order?"

"Hn."

Long accustomed to the Uchiha trademark grunt, she smiled in understanding.

When their coffee arrived, she made sure to thank Itachi by his name with one of her big smiles.

Sasuke blinked when Itachi proffered a small smile of his own. Looking back and forth between his friend and his aniki, Sasuke decided to put a plan in motion – partly to test a hypothesis and partly to annoy his aniki.

Grabbing their coffee, the two of them turned to leave. Sasuke, on the other hand, chose to hang a loose arm over his pink-haired friend's shoulders. She swiveled her head to smile endearingly at him.

Glancing back, Sasuke smirked wickedly when he noticed the tick on Itachi's jaw and narrowed eyes focused on his careless arm draped around the pink-haired girl.

* * *

><p>"Shisui," Itachi called out.<p>

"Hmm?" Shisui asked while placing the customer's money into the register.

"May we switch positions for a few minutes?"

At this, Shisui finally looked up curiously at Itachi. "You do know that working the register means talking to people, right? And being an actual human being, right?"

"I am not an imbecile, Shisui," Itachi retorted. Nevertheless, a torn expression stole across his face. "But yes…I am…aware of the repercussions."

Shisui couldn't believe that Itachi would willingly ask to man the register. Unless, of course, he had an ulterior motive. Sparing a glance towards the area of the door, Shisui smiled impishly when he saw the pink-haired girl approaching through the glass windows.

"Why…my dear cousin…are you…planning on flirting with our elusive customer?"

When Itachi coughed and stared at a corner tile of the ceiling, Shisui guffawed but consented to Itachi's request. "Go get the girl, tiger," he cheered on.

For a moment, Itachi experienced a mingle of doubt and fear. But he quickly squashed those emotions away. As an Uchiha, he was taught never to waver from his decisions. He had decided to speak with the girl and ask for her name. He would not back away now.

Which was why the pink-haired customer was very surprised when it was not Shisui but Itachi who greeted her at the register.

"Itachi-san? Why are you at the front today?"

Itachi gulped but answered as stoically as possible. "Shisui and I are trying to learn each others' responsibilities today."

"Ah," she nodded in acceptance, oblivious to the muffled chortles of Shisui from the side.

"What will you have?"

"A cappuccino, please."

Writing her order on the cup, Itachi asked, "Your name?"

"Satsuki."

She moved to pay when Itachi's voice stopped her.

"Your name?"

She blinked in confusion. "Nani?"

Itachi inhaled deeply before saying, "You have visited this café enough times to be considered a regular customer. You have never ordered the same drink twice _and_ you have neither offered the same name twice. So I must ask, your name?"

She blinked again before a small smile slowly spread across her face. "What makes you think that Satsuki isn't my real name?"

Itachi bristled but dared, "Is it?"

She allowed a second to pass before shaking her head. "But isn't it a bit unfair, don't you think so, Itachi-san?"

"What do you mean?"

She pretended to appear incredibly offended. "_You_ never gave me your name yet I figured it out without your help. Shouldn't you extend the same gesture then?"

She really was…unlike any other girl he had ever met. He had to know her name. He needed to know her name.

"I…I asked my otouto the other day but he proved to be of no help. He suggested that I ask you myself."

"Sounds just like Sasuke-kun."

"If I may ask…how do you know my brother?"

"We go to the same university and we went to high school together. But I've never seen you around the Uchiha compound before," she admitted honestly. "I only recently learned that you were the famous aniki that Sasuke-kun always talks about."

Ah. He had already moved to the university's dormitories when Sasuke had reached high school. He probably visited the compound whenever she was not around.

"Hn."

She laughed. "Just like Sasuke-kun." She placed the money for her coffee on the counter and said, "The first one."

Itachi knitted his brows in question.

"My name. The real one. It was the first one I gave you."

Fortunately, Itachi had not forgotten the day of the first time she had entered the café. Neither had he forgotten the first name she had given.

"Sakura," he whispered more to himself, but she heard him and smiled sweetly.

Grabbing her coffee from an overly zealous Shisui who kept repeating her name over and over simply because he now knew it, she prepared to exit the café.

"Sakura-san?"

She stopped mid-step and turned to glance at Itachi who had spoken her name.

"Are you…are you in a relationship with my otouto?"

This time, Sakura laughed so loudly that the other customers turned to stare at her. Wiping fake tears from the corners of her eyes, she shook her head and just to make sure there would be no misunderstandings, she reiterated her response with a loud, "No."

Sakura watched animatedly as relief appeared on Itachi-san's face. Deciding to be brave, she re-approached the counter, and thankfully, no other customer had followed after her purchase.

"Itachi-san," she said.

Leaning forward on the tips of her toes, Itachi still had to bend down to be of equal height to Sakura. Heat flooded his cheeks, his neck, and his ears when Sakura moved her face so that her lips were resting near his ear.

"Are you in a relationship with anybody, Itachi-san?" she whispered.

From the corner of her vision, she could see his Adam's apple bob upwards prominently as he swallowed. Slowly, he shook his head, becoming redder in the face when the action caused Sakura's lips to brush softly against his skin.

When Sakura pulled back, a sincere smile was pasted on her face. Backing away, she had already reached the café's door when she paused and turned to the still red in the face and unmoving Itachi.

"Itachi-san!"

He jolted into movement at the sound of her voice and she couldn't stop the giggle that escaped from her throat.

"Ne, Itachi-san. Let's grab coffee together sometime!"

Itachi didn't find the words he needed to say until she had already been long gone. Sighing because he wanted to do nothing more than chase after her, he settled for closing his eyes and breathing deeply several times.

When he opened them and peered downwards, he was surprised to find a cup of coffee sitting between his splayed hands.

Had Sakura-san forgotten her coffee? Searching for the name and the order, he finalized that she had indeed forgotten her coffee. But to his absolute wonder, a small card fluttered to the floor when he had picked up the cup. Bending down to pluck the piece of paper from the ground, he instantly recognized it as a calling card for a university tutor.

And to his great joy – and for the rest of the day everyone would wonder why the often stoic Uchiha Itachi was smiling – the tutor was none other than Haruno Sakura.

She had left her number for Itachi.

In the background near the coffee machines, Shisui couldn't help but think that he was right all along. His cousin and the once multi-named customer did in fact belong together.

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><p>Author's Note: I hope you all enjoyed that. Ratings and reviews are much appreciated, and as I've said in my other story and bio, flowers magically appearing on my doorstep are also accepted wholeheartedly. This particular oneshot was a fairly long one in my opinion. Please do not expect all of them to be of this length. Most of the next ones will be much shorter.<p> 


	2. Chapter 2: Music of Love and Despair

**DISCLAIMER****: All Naruto characters belong to Kishimoto**

Author's Note: I am aware that the prelude to the ItaSaku moment for this particular oneshot is a tad lengthy but I really do think it's necessary for the overall story. And I really, really do hope that you all read my bio because this oneshot is nothing like the one before it ("Coffee Encounters"). Non-mass.

Either way, a quick warning: ANGST. So much angst. Brace yourselves.

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><p><span>Music of Love and Despair<span>

His mother always told him that he had piano fingers. Long and beautiful, they could stretch across the black and white keys to play the most complex string of notes.

He had been very young when he began to play the majestic instrument. At the first sight of potential, his father had piano teachers visiting the main compound every afternoon for three times a week. After all, when a person showed even the slightest aptitude for something, Uchiha Fugaku made sure to hone that raw talent to complete mastery.

How else did the villagers think Uchiha Itachi became such a powerful shinobi?

To be able to graduate the academy at seven years of age and to become among the youngest members of ANBU, raw talent alone was simply not enough. When Fugaku had seen his eldest son grasp a kunai with a hand that would make a seasoned shinobi envious, raw talent became so much more.

Uchiha Itachi had been born into an era of carnage as he watched the Third Shinobi World War rip the souls of its victims and drag them to the afterlife. Though the war had ended, Itachi was named an ANBU captain at the age of thirteen, much too young but apparently not young enough. The village may have ended its time of war, but Itachi continued to wage blood-filled battles with every mission he took. Even now in the present time, even when the village lived in prosperity and peace under the leadership of the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade-sama, blood to be spilled never seemed to reach its end.

And for the citizens of Konoha, people oblivious to the depth of the necessary sacrifices in order to uphold their beloved _peace_, for them, the shinobis forged their will in blood. The Will of Fire may have been taught in the academy as a treasure and means of inspiration for those young children still blind to the truth of what it meant to be a shinobi, but what a lie it truly was.

Being a shinobi was nothing at all like the fantastical dreams of a child playing ninja, nor was it whatever honorable vision the civilians held. Just look at the shinobis of Konoha. When they were not cutting down enemies, they became victims to the vices they had adopted in order to keep their feet tied to the reality that a majority of society believed to be true. Otherwise, they may just find themselves willingly chasing after shinigami-sama so many years before their time. Hatake Kakashi's father was a good example of the latter.

And so life went on. Asuma smoked and when he finally succumbed to the dangers of his profession, his own student, the young Nara, took the mantle of his vice. Kakashi mourned in front of the memorial stone every free moment of his life, hiding his inner turmoil behind the worn out orange cover of Icha Icha. Even the Godaime shared this persona with her subordinates every time she woke up from a long nap courtesy of bottles upon bottles of sake.

But Itachi could at least be thankful that his vice was nowhere near the extremes of his comrades and his Hokage.

Though Fugaku had been the one to introduce him to the world of bloodshed known as being a shinobi, Itachi was thankful for at least one thing his father had done for him.

With his honed skills on the piano, Itachi was now able to compose his own music. After every gruesome mission, Itachi played composition after composition on the black and white instrument.

And Uchiha Mikoto, his mother, would watch her eldest child play whenever she could. Swaying her head to the soft notes that emanated from the piano keys, Itachi always tried to choose music with lighter themes whenever his mother was watching. But more often than not, slivers of Itachi's unvoiced thoughts about his way of life leaked into his music, the sounds of sadness and perhaps regret filling every corner of the Uchiha main compound.

Nevertheless, Mikoto would always squeeze Itachi's shoulders afterwards and offer the sincerest of praises.

For a long time, only his mother spoke words laced with emotion when regarding his talent with the piano. Especially since Itachi never played beyond the walls of the compound and neither his father nor his otouto could be really counted on for a pair of flattering words.

For a while this was true. Until one day, he found a new vice that came in the form of a pretty yet headstrong pink-haired kunoichi. She, along with the rest of Team Seven had become jounin the year prior.

She had overheard him playing when she visited the compound to see Sasuke. Itachi had sensed her chakra when she arrived but he did not want to halt halfway through the melody.

But as the last note came to an end, shock was writ on Itachi's face when Sakura stepped forward and spoke in the softest and most honest voice he had ever heard.

"You play beautifully, Itachi-san. But I truly hope that your soul is not as full of grief as your music."

With a small smile, she bowed goodbye before continuing her search for Sasuke.

But Itachi still sat with his back to the piano and with his mouth slightly agape. He composed his own music because he was not a man of words. He'd fumble over words the same way a newly-enrolled academy student would throw a shuriken. So when he could not utter his emotions with words, he allowed the music of the piano to speak for him. But no one, not even his mother, has gone beyond the customary praise. No one had ever realized that each note Itachi played was a cry that had long since been tempered away by being shinobi and an Uchiha.

* * *

><p>"Play me something on the piano, Itachi?"<p>

Smiling softly at the girl sitting beside him, Itachi nodded his head. Standing, he pulled her up with him. He had just come from a mission last night but Itachi no longer felt at war with himself each time he returned home.

For the past year since Sakura had first overheard him playing, Itachi's life had changed. Though the villagers did not notice much of a difference, the people who mattered certainly did.

His mother would smile each time he and Sakura were together and even the Hokage would smirk whenever she caught sight of the two of them together. And while Team 7 had first been opposed to their relationship, they had come to realize that attempting to assassinate one of the top ANBU captains was out of their league. Though still bitter, they had settled for sending scornful looks in Itachi's direction. Nonetheless, Itachi still remained wary of Kakashi because while the man was technically only a sensei to Sakura, he seemed to have developed a fatherly bond with the girl. If anyone in Team 7 had the ability to successfully kill Itachi and pretend nothing had happened, it would be Hatake Kakashi.

He felt her lean against his shoulder, strands of her pink hair caressing the skin of his arms. She sighed as if in peace as Itachi's fingers moved deftly across the keys, the music resonating through the room.

There had been a time when he played with sadness always seeping at the end of the notes, but now Itachi played with quite the opposite. With each day spent with Sakura, the darkness of both his music and thoughts vanished. A music of love had taken precedence in his life.

Once before, in the beginnings of the budding of their relationship, Itachi had asked Sakura how she could love someone like himself. A man with blood on his hands who could not even find escape in his own mind. Wouldn't loving a man so full of suffering bring nothing but suffering as well to the other person?

Sakura had given a smile, so knowing and sweet and kind and understanding. "We all have blood on our hands, Itachi. When we chose to become shinobi, we knew the kind of life we would lead. I won't let you suffer alone." She shook her head resolutely. "I love you and I will offer you as much happiness as I can. And when that is not enough, I will share the burden of your misery and I will suffer with you. If that is what it means to love you, then so be it. I love you, Uchiha Itachi."

And her eyes, so full of unshed tears mirrored the emotions tumbling through Itachi's head. He could not cry because he did not remember how to cry. And Sakura would shed the tears for him until he learned to cry once again.

At that moment, Itachi had felt another emotion swell up in his chest until it spread through the tips of his fingers and every part of his body. Slowly, he had reached for Sakura and had tipped her chin upwards, settling the softest kiss on her lips. When he had pulled back, he murmured so quietly it barely rose above a whisper, "I love you, Haruno Sakura."

* * *

><p>"I'll only be gone for two weeks, Itachi," she reassured.<p>

Team 7 had easily become one of the most successful jounin teams in the village. Taking on more high-class missions than any of the other jounin teams, Team 7's members had each earned a page in nearly every Bingo book.

But in spite of their prowess as a team, Itachi felt a prickle of unease about this particular mission. As a high-ranking ANBU captain, Itachi had enough clearance to become privy to other team's mission assignments.

Team 7 would be traveling to Iwa. There had been some unrest occurring near the borders of the Hidden Village of Iwa and as a show of good will, Konoha had offered to extend a hand of help to the Tsuchikage. Tsunade-sama would not send ANBU because the beginnings of an Iwa civil war did not warrant operatives of such high rank, but she would neither insult Iwa's kage by sending an unheard of team.

Which was why Team 7 had been the ideal choice. They were famed both for their abilities as a group and as individuals. Very few had not heard of Team 7.

So perhaps his unease was born from the knowledge that the peace treaty between his village and Iwa was nothing more than a near-shredded thread that barely prevented a kunai from stabbing someone in the back. Treaties, after all, were often made to simply be broken. Or perhaps his unease was more unfounded, spawned by the recent lack of action from the Akatsuki.

The Akatsuki had once been adamant in their hunt for the tailed beasts. And just when they were only one tailed beast away from success, they had disappeared from the radar. For quite some time, Konoha assumed that the Akatsuki was simply bidding their time before ambushing the village to acquire Uzumaki Naruto and the tailed beast he housed. But when months became a year, and a few more months were added to the count, Konoha accepted the disappearance of the Akatsuki.

"Itachi," Sakura called him out of his reverie. "I need to go now. Shishou said that she was personally hauling Kakashi-sensei's ass out of bed, so he probably won't be too late this time." She grinned at the image of her shishou tearing down her sensei's apartment in an attempt to wake the man up. "Anyways, I need to be at the gates soon to meet up with the rest of my team."

Pushing up on her toes, she planted a chaste kiss on her lover's lips. "I'll be back soon," she whispered against his lips.

Turning on her heel to leave, she was surprised and nearly toppled over her feet when Itachi grasped her arm to pull her back to him. She was even more shocked when Itachi moved to give her a heated kiss. Turning as pink as her hair, it took another second before she was able to settle into Itachi's hold and lean into his body.

Savoring the kiss, she was a more than a little dazed when Itachi finally pulled back. "What was that for?" she breathed out.

But Itachi's eyes were smoldering with deep emotion and ignored her question wholly. Placing one last kiss on Sakura's lips, he touched his forehead against hers and whispered, "Be safe."

Little did Itachi know that when he released Sakura from his arms, the next time he would see her would not be a kind affair. The melody that had long since been soothed by Sakura's presence may just very well find its path back to darkness.

* * *

><p>"You're thinking of her again, aren't you?"<p>

Itachi pressed down on the final notes of his composition, the sounds jarring and hard, an exact replica of everything battling in his head.

When the music died down to a silence, Itachi lifted his gaze to the side to look at his mother, but otherwise, he did not move from his slouched position in front of the piano.

Mikoto patted her son's arm but somehow she knew the action would do nothing to free him from his pain. Squeezing his arm, she murmured the same thing she said to those who had lost loved ones. "Time will blunt the pain, Itachi. When the time is right, you will know. She will not hate you for being happy." Settling a kiss on Itachi's temple, she glanced back once with such sad eyes before walking away.

And ever so slowly, Itachi closed his eyes, his fingers searching for the black and white keys of the piano.

Team 7 had returned from their mission exactly two weeks later as to be expected. Itachi had been waiting by the gates when he caught sight of the group dragging their feet forward. He even remembered the small smile that had graced his lips when they had come back in time, not a day late.

But as they moved closer into his line of vision, Itachi had furrowed his brows. _Why were they walking at such a slow pace?_

When he had finally recognized the injuries crisscrossing over the bodies of all members of Team 7, Itachi had jumped down from the wall where he stood and called the guards to intercept the incoming team.

But once he was no more than a few feet away, Itachi paused because what he had seen was beyond anything he was prepared for.

Naruto had been injured the least, the Kyuubi most likely in the process of healing its host. Still, if Naruto had been the standard for what it meant to be unharmed, then Itachi didn't know how to describe the others.

His otouto had been sporting a bruise that covered a greater portion of his face and one of his arms was clearly broken. The side of his abdomen had been stained red indicating that the makeshift bandage was no longer holding the injury at bay.

Hatake Kakashi had been slouched forward, not from his usual laziness, but from a giant gash on his back with the skin carelessly stitched back together to prevent the man from bleeding out.

All three of them had been covered in so much grime and blood that Itachi hadn't been sure whether any amount of washing could make the three men clean again where it truly mattered.

And Sakura. Kami-sama, he hadn't wanted to believe his eyes but stepping forward even closer, Itachi knew without a doubt that what he had seen had not been a genjutsu. He would have gladly endured the tortures of his own Tsukuyomi a thousand times over if it meant changing the course of time. Because Sakura…kami-sama…seeing Sakura in that manner was the same as living the rest of his abominable life with a broken mind.

Lying on Naruto's back, Haruno Sakura hung with her eyes closed to the world and its misery. Her hair had been matted against her face with so much blood that he would probably be unable to run his fingers through its strands. Her clothes were torn, more blood seeping through the snags. Her medic skirt was missing altogether.

But what had really made Itachi stifle a choked cry was when Naruto had shifted his hold on his teammate. Right in the center of her chest was a bloody hole, which had been clearly where her opponent had delivered the finishing blow.

"Sakura…" Itachi breathed out as if it had been the only breath he had remaining.

Naruto shook with emotion at the sound of the name and he dropped his gaze to the ground, but Itachi had seen the droplets of tears that fell to the earth. His otouto had refused to look him in the eye, his hands closing into fists, and Itachi had wondered if Sasuke might just cry. And Kakashi, the father figure of Haruno Sakura, raised his eyes to meet Itachi's gaze. Itachi had never once thought that the sharingan could look anything less than terrifying, but with Kakashi's headband raised from his eyes, the lone sharingan that stared at him had looked lamented and broken.

Because the mission to Iwa had been falsely sent, knowing that the Hokage would send Team 7 once she had read the mission details. Upon nearing the borders of Iwa, they had been ambushed by none other than the thought-to-be disappeared Akatsuki. Primarily Pein and three of his other bodies and Kisame. They had planned to steal the Kyuubi, and Team 7 had escaped, but barely and clearly not all of them had done so. Team 7 was powerful but against that many Akatsuki, even they had been destined to fall. The price of their battle had been high, too high.

For the safety of the Kyuubi, Team 7 had lost Haruno Sakura.

And Itachi had lost her as well.

Returning to the present time, Itachi stared at the piano in front of him with his fingers hovering over the keys as the melody of the music died in the background.

Since that fateful day, Team 7 had disbanded themselves. Hatake Kakashi had thrown himself back into the grueling life of the ANBU. Kakashi would not kill himself the same way his father had done, but everyone knew that one day, he would allow the blade of the enemy to pierce its mark.

And as for Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, both had been given mandatory time-off from their shinobi duties by the Godaime Hokage. The reason for their time-off being twofold: to allow their wounds to heal and to attend psychological counseling. Physical scarring could be tolerated but there was nothing worse than a shinobi with a mind slashed into shreds of insanity.

The two boys had attempted to follow the Hokage's orders for a whole month but they soon realized that the sight of Konoha alone ignited the fire that brought their nightmares to life. Itachi wasn't privy to the specifics of what Team 7 had seen in their battle at Iwa, but it must have been a horror come to life. At the dead of the night, Sasuke and Naruto had stolen away from Konoha, forever lost to the people inside its walls.

Sakura had died and had left her boys alone with the living. Team 7, though not physically, had been hasty to follow.

And now, now…Itachi understood the two boys' mentalities. His mother was wrong this time. Time would not heal his wounds and he would not move on. Sakura had shared his suffering and without her love, Itachi could not suffer in Konoha alone.

Sliding the seat of the piano back, he stood slowly from his perch and glided his fingers atop the black and white keys.

Tomorrow would be the second year anniversary of Sakura's death. For nearly two years, Itachi had played nothing but a melody of melancholy.

But no more. No more.

He had given everything to this village and for so many years, he had done so without asking for anything in return. The peace and happiness of its citizens had been enough. But then he found Sakura and he found another reason to fight as a shinobi. He had given Konoha everything, content that he had Sakura. But Konoha took her away, if not only by proxy.

Tomorrow…he would no longer be here tomorrow. _Tonight_. Tonight he would disappear and when the hunter-nins come chasing, he would keep running…he would run until he could see Konoha no more.

Itachi pulled the cover over the piano keys and moved towards the door. Tonight would be the last time he played the music of despair.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Oh wow. I didn't expect this one to be that long. Oh well. I hope you all enjoyed it...despite the copious amounts of angst. And yikes...nobody hate me too much for the ending...and everything in between...alright? Kind of dark, I know. So...should the next one be another angst-filled session of ItaSaku or does everyone need a break via some happier and possibly fluff-centered themes? Actually, it'll really depend more on my mood. Though I won't make any promises, you never know…your comments may just sway the writing process. Let's hope for the best.<p>

And as always, rate and review, please! There is, of course, the alternative of actual flowers but that seems slightly improbable at the moment. I won't say "impossible" because who knows? I may just wake up with a bouquet at my doorstep.


	3. Chapter 3: Blind

**DISCLAIMER: All Naruto characters belong to Kishimoto**

Author's Note: This is not fluff but I do not consider this as angst either. Enjoy.

* * *

><p><span>Blind<span>

"Hime-sama, are you sure of your decision?"

Though she did not halt in her steps, the woman being addressed had tipped her head ever so slightly to the side to indicate that she was listening.

"Hime-sama–"

"Do you doubt my actions, Shizune-san? Or perhaps my state of mind worries you?"

Despite the seemingly harsh string of words, Shizune knew her hime very well. After all, her family has been serving the Harunos for seven generations.

Looking ahead, Shizune thought she saw the glint of her hime's emerald eye but as they turned a corner almost too quickly, she shook her head uncertainly. Walking two steps behind her hime as per etiquette of the imperial family, Shizune spoke once more.

"For all the years that I have served you and your family, never have I questioned your abilities, whether it be of the body or of the mind, hime-sama." Had they not be walking, and had they been facing each other, Shizune knew that she would have knelt to the ground before her hime. That would have been done neither because she desired to apologize for daring to question her hime nor because she desired the favor of her hand. She would have bowed low to the ground as a show of both the truth of her most recent statement and of utmost respect.

"I merely wish to secure the safety of your future, hime-sama."

"Shizune, you need not speak to me with such level of formality. There are no whisperers lingering around us."

"Ah. Of course, Sakura-sama." Shizune smiled fondly at the woman in front of her. Though still formal, very few people were explicitly allowed to refer to the hime by her given name.

"And let me tame your worries, Shizune. I did not choose a husband today – that is the business of my father. I merely chose a retainer."

"…Hai. I understand that, Sakura-sama. Nevertheless," Shizune paused to consider her words. "Nevertheless, your choice for your new retainer is…worrisome."

"Is he not skilled with his sword? Is he not as capable as the other warriors of our land?"

"Yes, but–"

"Then nothing else should matter. Unlike other empires, retainers in Konohagakure are more than just assistants. They are valued as specialized soldiers worthy of becoming personal guards to those of higher positions ranging from royalty to clan heirs. He need only be strong enough to act as my shield and my weapon; that is all he needs to be, that is all a retainer needs to be."

"He is blind, Sakura-sama."

"And yet he has defeated more men than anyone else in our land. Quite frankly, I believe the training of our warriors have been lax. If they cannot stand on even-footing with a blind man, imagine had they been faced with my retainer if he still had his eyes – they would have died before the first weapon was unsheathed. We can only thank kami-sama that he was not born an enemy. If that is not a testament of his ability, then I do not know what is."

Shizune knew that her words were hopeless. Because the true reason for her unease regarding her hime's choice cannot be attributed to that man's lack of physical prowess. No, it transcended that. And without further hesitation, Shizune voiced the thoughts that had been plaguing her mind.

"He betrayed his family." Before she could continue, the hime spoke.

"Is he not loyal to the Empire of Konohagakure?"

And at that question, Shizune pursed her lips. Though Sakura-sama could not see her, she nodded her head. "But a man so ready to turn his face from his own kin could as easily denounce his empire. Especially since his family still walks among the living."

"Your words have truth to them. His family's punishment was not as dire as it should have been. They have merely been exiled. Some part of me wonders why my father and mother did not have the entire Uchiha clan executed. But, Shizune." The hime paused. "Call it intuition if you choose, but there is something about this particular man that makes me believe that neither his actions nor the motivations behind them merit suspicion."

The hime suddenly stopped walking and Shizune had to take one step back.

"He betrayed his family in order to protect the citizens of Konohagakure. When the circumstances hinged on his shoulders, he delivered and for that, he lost the ties to his blood family. The Uchiha clan despises him, whether it be his father, his mother, or his brother. But with one man, calamity was evaded. So yes, he may have betrayed his kin, but he did so in the name of Konohagakure. Could we ask for a more loyal man than him?"

Her hime's words rang clear and true, and Shizune could not speak.

"Besides," the hime spoke, "while I have yet to discover the reason behind the empress and the emperor's lenient choice of punishment, perhaps it will be more enjoyable this way." Sakura-sama shrugged and this time, Shizune was certain that the glint of emerald was not a trick of the light. The decorated kimono Sakura wore shifted as she craned her neck backwards to look at Shizune with piercing eyes and the smallest of smiles that bordered between malicious and jesting.

"I have a feeling that the Uchihas will send Sasuke-kun to the inevitable battlefront. Imagine his expression when he crosses blades with his beloved aniki who loved Konohagakure more than his own brother. What a battle that shall be – to pit the blind genius of the Uchiha with their young prodigy. Who do you think shall win?"

And at moments like these, when her eyes seemed to glow a brighter green that was full of wickedness and cunning, it was easy to forget the perfect image of the hime that everyone loved – the one that possessed long pink hair adorned with jewels and wore layers of fine silk as a kimono. Shizune thought that it was a shame that Sakura had been a born a woman. The pink-haired hime would have made a fine warrior had she been a man.

But Shizune shook her head. It did not matter what else she told her hime, the retainer had been chosen and Sakura would not retract that choice.

Though not to Konohagakure, at the end of the day, Uchiha Itachi was still a traitor in his own right.

Shizune could only pray that her hime was not wrong about him. After all, the Uchihas once thought that Itachi's mind and body belonged solely to them. How wrong they had been.

* * *

><p>Sakura did not pause at the threshold of the room despite recognizing that something was amiss. Without fault, she approached the small wooden table in the corner of her room where she proceeded to remove the glittering accessories that kept her hair pulled back. Sparing a glance at the small mirror hanging from the wall, she finally decided to speak.<p>

"With the exception of a husband, it is improper for a man to be alone with a woman in her chambers. Unless, of course, you are simply lost. If that is the case, you have better luck finding those types of _establishments_ out in the city."

"Hime-sama."

When the last of the accessories were removed, her pink hair fell in waves down to the small of her back. Turning around, she arched a brow at the man kneeling in deference before her.

"Uchiha Itachi," she said. "While it is true that you are blind, you are also still a man. Now, tell me why you choose to kneel before me in my private chambers?"

Uchiha Itachi remained unmoving on the ground, and Sakura took the opportunity to examine him. His long hair was bound loosely at the nape of his neck unlike his fellow warriors who wore their hair like horsetails tight atop their heads. Above his dark blue pants, he wore a loose fitting kimono of the purest white held close by a royal blue obi. Sakura thought it was ironic that a man with so much blood on his hands chose to swathe himself in a color of peace.

"Hime-sama," Itachi repeated. "I have come to offer my deepest gratitude. I am both honored and humbled by your recent decision."

Sakura placed her chin on one of her palms. "You speak as if I my choice to appoint you as my retainer equates to me having passed a favorable judgment."

Though his head was bowed low, Sakura could see a small smile creep onto Itachi's face.

"In my case, hime-sama," Itachi began. "Your decision may as well have been judgment."

Even as a child, people told Sakura that her eyes spoke more words than her mouth ever could. But Itachi was blind and even the most expressive of eyes were lost to him. "Elucidate," she ordered instead.

Itachi's lips twisted into an expression not of grief, but of something akin to resigned sadness. "Though I was not born blind, my sight nevertheless abandoned me at a young age. My family," Itachi paused at the word, no doubt remembering that he could no longer call those people family. "The Uchiha clan," he amended. "It is filled with warriors and when I lost my sight, I very nearly lost my clan as well. The Uchihas value power among all else and a disabled boy can easily be renounced."

"But you are among the most talented warriors of our empire, and I recall your clan boasting of your successes often."

He sighed in response to her words. "Although my clan soon realized that my disability did nothing to impair my abilities with a blade, their reverence only extended to the public eye. In the privacy of the Uchiha compound, I was looked down upon. The Uchihas believed themselves omnipotent and they have always desired to obtain control of this empire. But a blind boy sees the world differently simply because he _cannot _see it. I never believed in their selfish dreams and as such, their plans to use me as their greatest tool to amass power was quickly discarded. But I suspect that they never imagined that I would expose their plans of a coup to the emperor."

Sakura had met many people in her life – both the poor and the nobles alike often visited to seek her favor. They assumed her to be a hime of kindness and of pure heart, and her parents were quick to take advantage of that fact by delegating her to hear the mundane problems of their people. But very few knew that the pink-haired woman who sits upon a throne would have rather held a blade between her fingers. She dreamed of battles and of cruelty, but alas, they were always just dreams.

But from all those people who have come to her audience, never had she met a man similar to Uchiha Itachi. The people of Konohagakure bored Sakura very much because they were all so mindless. They didn't know who they were and as result, they didn't know what they truly wanted. All the merchants wanted money. All the poor wanted land. All the warriors wanted glory. But strip them of their societal roles and ask them what they truly wanted, what would it be? Who were they when they had no titles accompanying their names?

But here was a man kneeling in front of her who knew exactly the answers to those questions. A man who neither relied on his family name nor his status as a warrior to tell him who he was and what he wanted. Because when stripped of everything, Uchiha Itachi knew exactly who he was and what he wanted. _Peace_. What a pity he was a warrior. Yet despite the foolishness of Uchiha Itachi's dream, Sakura respected him. For all its idealistic impossibility, at least he had the conviction to know that he desired peace above all else.

Sakura smiled without the usual malice. She could not have chosen a better retainer.

"I could love a man like you."

He jolted at the hime's words.

"Hime-sama?"

Stepping forward, she saw his body tense. She crouched in front of him and placed her arms atop her knees.

"I could love a man like you, Uchiha Itachi," Sakura repeated. "Rise," she commanded.

Hesitating only for a moment, Itachi pulled himself up from his low bow but he did not stand.

"You may have lost your blood family, Itachi, but know that it was not all in vain. Konohagakure may forget what you have sacrificed for it in due time, but know that I will remember your deeds for all of eternity. For all that it is worth, for whatever it is worth, I hope I can offer you a semblance of what you have lost."

"Hime-sama…" Itachi choked out.

Making his already blind world darker, a long piece of dark blue cloth covered his eyes. When Sakura reached to undo the tie at the back, Itachi recoiled but he still remained sitting on the ground.

Sakura did not pressure the matter. Instead she settled for laying a hand against his cheek and though Itachi was stiff and unresponsive at first, he seemed to have reached a conclusion as he laid his head against her gentle touch.

"Though I have already chosen you as my retainer, I believe it fitting to ask you rather than just command you." She breathed deeply and whispered, "Would you be my shield, Itachi? Would you fight for me the battles that I cannot undertake on my own? Would you stand beside me should the world crumble to our feet? If you cannot, I will resign you from my side with no ill will or any form of repercussions. So please, be truthful."

Slowly, Itachi nodded his head against her hand and Sakura had to bite her lower lip to keep from grinning. "Always, hime-sama."

Before she stood, Sakura murmured, "One day you will show me your eyes."

Staring at the cloth covering Itachi's eyes, she felt a tear roll over her fingers.

* * *

><p>She was attacked. A banquet was being held in honor of a visiting noble family. During the time when the guests were frolicking across the banquet floor, an arrow shot from an unknown location. The archer was surely skilled and had her retainer been anyone else, Sakura's heart would have surely had an arrow plunged straight through it.<p>

Faster than humanly possible, Itachi had swept from the corner of the room where he had been watching the hime and was standing in front of her with an arrow lodged at his arm.

The guests had panicked and Sakura was evacuated from the room by a bleeding Itachi.

Now, she stood in an infirmary where a nurse was tending to Itachi's wound. The nurse kept glancing nervously at Sakura, worried that she would commit a mistake in the presence of the hime.

"You need not wait for me, hime-sama. I am sure that you would rather retire in your chambers after that most recent commotion," Itachi suggested.

Sakura shrugged to the blind man. "I'm not much fazed by the situation. People have been trying to assassinate me since I was four years of age."

Despite his eyes being covered, Itachi's expression darkened. "And your father has only recently decided that you required a retainer?"

She shrugged once more but waited for the nurse to finish knotting the thread of Itachi's stitches before answering. The nurse bowed to Sakura and rapidly excused herself from the room. When the door had been sealed shut, Sakura moved to occupy the stool beside Itachi's own.

"I was given a retainer twice. The first on my seventh birthday, but he was a useless man. He died on the first attack. The second was kept a secret from the public for good reason. He turned out to be a traitor but the guards caught him before he could assassinate me. His execution was a private affair. I watched his head drop to the ground for my tenth birthday."

"I…see."

Sakura smiled at his disgruntled reaction. She did not know if it was a result of the apparent incompetence of her past retainers or because of the newfound knowledge that an execution was her tenth birthday's primary entertainment.

Whatever the reason, Sakura averted her eyes to Itachi's wound and changed the subject.

"Does it hurt?" she asked.

Itachi offered her a kind smile. "I have sustained far worse injuries."

Sakura rubbed her thumb and forefinger together before succumbing to her impulses. Reaching forward, she ran three fingers down the length of Itachi's bandaged arm. Unlike their first encounter, Itachi no longer flinched under her touch. Over the past few months, he had been quick to learn that Sakura was fond of physical contact, whether it was the caress of a cheek or merely grasping his hand in her own. In return, Itachi had grown accustomed to her antics.

"Sometimes I wish a blade would succeed in its course." At that, Itachi stiffened beneath her fingers. "I want to feel a semblance of what it's like to be in a battle just once in my life."

Itachi shuffled and grasped Sakura's hand from his shoulder. Had he not been blind, he would have seen the high arch of Sakura's brows at his sudden reaction. "Please do not speak of such things, hime-sama. Please never even consider sacrificing your life for any matter. Please," he begged once more.

Sakura used her free hand to trail a finger down from Itachi's temple to his chin. "Do you implore this of me because you do not desire to be deemed a failure as my retainer? Or is it…something else?" she breathed out.

Itachi swallowed deeply and he did not offer a verbal response. Rather, he leaned forward and rested his chin against her shoulder. "I…I cannot speak of such things. I am no more but your willing servant."

Smiling softly, Sakura placed a hand on his back. "And yet you have been so much more to me than anyone else I have known."

Grasping him by the shoulders, she pushed Itachi back to his original position. "I know this is difficult for you to understand because you are a man who desires peace. Had you been old enough to be a warrior before you lost your sight, you would have surely despised the color of blood. You may have even given up your position as a warrior. I am very different from you."

Itachi knitted his brows in confusion. "You…enjoy fighting?"

She laughed. "I would not say I enjoy fighting. Duels, after all, do not entertain me. I suppose you can say that unlike you, I enjoy the color of blood. I have seen more executions than even my father." She paused to tuck a stray hair back. "Do you know what a perfect warrior would be?" She didn't bother to wait for an answer. "A person with a body trained as a warrior but with a mind fashioned as a politician. You see, politicians are corrupt people and they will tear down nearly anything in their way to accomplish their goals. And Itachi, I may not possess the body of a warrior because I am both a woman and a hime, but I have been surrounded by politicians since the day I was born."

Sakura expected Itachi to blanch at her admission. She even expected him to recoil and perhaps offer her a few harsh words of rebuke. After all, he was a man of peace.

So when Itachi did neither of those nor anything worse, Sakura's eyes widened in honest surprise. He leaned forward too suddenly and swept both of her hands into his own. His brows were furrowed and his lips were twisted, but not from contempt. Desperation seemed more like the proper word to describe Uchiha Itachi's current emotion.

Bowing his head, he spoke softly but seriously. "Please, hime-sama. You asked me to be your shield; you asked me to be your weapon; you asked me to stand with you should the world fall apart. Please allow me to do so. Allow me to commit the sins you wish to accomplish the same way a general wishes to raze the land of the enemy. Allow me to bear the wounds of the enemy's sins as well. If you desire the color of blood, allow me to be the one to bring it to you. You need not stain your hands with such acts. I will carry the burden of your desires for you."

Sakura's emerald eyes shook with emotion. "Itachi…" she whispered.

"Please, hime-sama."

And Sakura, faced with a man so willing to partake in atrocities that would go against his nature, could barely find the words to answer.

"…Hai…" she said at last.

"Arigato, hime-sama," he said with such sincerity.

She watched as a tear rolled over Itachi's fingers. Except this time, she wasn't sure if it belonged to him or to her.

* * *

><p>A tedious day, indeed. Sakura rubbed circles over her temples but it did nothing to alleviate the headache she was experiencing. The twelve layers of her <em>Juni-Hitoe <em>was also beginning to wear down on her. Her mother had deemed the occasion of enough importance that she had ordered Sakura to wear the goodness-forbidden attire.

"You look troubled hime-sama." Itachi peeled himself off the wall to open the doors to her private chambers.

"It's been a horrid day," she responded. Itachi had not been allowed to attend the occasion with her. After all, both the emperor and the empress had been present. Both possessed enough guards to protect a caravan or two, if not more.

Uncaring that there was a man in the room, Sakura began to shed her attire layer by layer. It was an excruciatingly long process. When she wore nothing more but the basic robe with her undergarments beneath, Sakura breathed a sigh of relief.

She dropped to the tatami mat and breathed out once more. When she felt Itachi position himself behind her and begin to rub the knots out of her back, she smiled and relaxed into his hold.

"That was a rather lengthy conference, hime-sama." Itachi was merely commenting on a fact and he made no move to prod further. The private affairs of the imperial family were no business of his unless members of the other party wished to disclose such information.

But Sakura's expression darkened at the reminder of what she had just endured. She didn't care much for secrecy when it came to Itachi and she found herself asking, "Have you ever been in love, Itachi?"

Itachi paused for a split second in his massage of Sakura's shoulders. "I was raised on a battlefield, hime-sama. It was not the most fertile land for love."

"Hm."

"Why do you ask, hime-sama?"

Sakura's answer was cryptic and curt. "Twelve."

"Pardon?"

"That conference. I met twelve suitors that were deemed acceptable by my father."

When Itachi's fingers slipped from her shoulders, Sakura slouched forward but she continued in her verbal assault. "My father will choose one of them in a fortnight. I assume that within a month I shall be wedded."

She waited patiently for Itachi's response. Just when she was prepared to urge him to respond, he spoke. With her back still turned against him, she listened to his solemn answer. "I…understand."

Laughing sardonically, she dropped her gaze to her hands. "Do you, Itachi? Do you really understand?"

His voice was tight. "You will learn to love him over the years."

This time, Sakura's laughter was loud and pained. "Tsk. You may say you understand, but apparently you do not."

Turning around in her seat on the floor, she faced Itachi. "Love does not exist within the imperial court."

"What do you mean?"

Sakura took his hands before answering. "My mother loved a man named Katō Dan but he died too soon. Had she given birth to his child, that child would have been born from love. But my mother and my father, they are united by mutual responsibility. They do not despise each other, but they do not love each other either. They have merely grown fond of each other but still not enough to call it love."

"Hime-sama…"

"Itachi…I was not a child conceived from the bond of love between two people," she admitted. She tightened her hold on Itachi's hands and he squeezed back with equal fervor. "I will marry whoever my father chooses when the time comes. I will marry him and I will more than likely bear his child. And I will do all those without complaint."

"I do not know what to say," Itachi revealed.

"I know." Sakura pushed herself onto her knees and gently held Itachi's face between her palms. "Just like you, I have never been in love. But this…this thing between us, I believe this comes close." Sakura felt her throat constrict from emotion but she continued on with her words. "I can offer you my love, Itachi. But I cannot offer you my hand. If you are willing to live such a life, please tell me. If you cannot settle for the inadequacies of what I can offer, I must apologize but that is all I can do. If you desire, I would free you from my side." She felt her heart clench at the possibility of Itachi choosing to accept the last of her statement. She wanted to take back the words but she knew that he deserved that much.

Sakura was startled when she felt Itachi's face disappear from between her fingers. She barely had enough time to widen her eyes when Itachi was suddenly kissing her and holding her face between his hands. It was fervent, it was desperate, it was real, it was love.

"Itachi…" she whispered when he pulled back to touch his forehead against hers.

"Hime-sama. I know you do not believe it, but should you learn to love that man, I will still stand by your side. As your retainer, as your shield, as your weapon, as your sin, I will never abandon you. Even if you had nothing to offer me, not even your love."

"Itachi…"

Pulling back completely, Sakura brought a hand up to her lips when Itachi untied the cloth that covered his eyes. When it fell to the ground, Sakura was greeted with the darkest eyes she had ever seen. Like black diamonds, they reflected the emotions dancing in her own emerald eyes.

Sakura wondered how someone so blind and unseeing could glimpse life with so much more clarity than the rest of humanity.

* * *

><p>*<em>Juni-Hitoe <em>is commonly a ten to twelve layer traditional attire worn by the ancient Japanese during the Heian period. This is an attire worn by noble women and yes, imperial princesses.

Author's Note: I hope you all enjoyed that and as always, reviews are much appreciated.

I will be doing something a little differently from now on with regards to Compendium. I am officially accepting prompts from my readers. Just leave your suggestions with your reviews.

But I really must urge you all to keep the prompts relatively short; even one word prompts are fine (such as Blind, the title of this particular story you just read). Please refrain from listing out the whole plot for me…that'll take away all the fun of writing it.

Anyways, I'll still sometimes toss in some prompts of mine, but I'll make sure to note it when I'm using a reader's prompt. So once again, I am officially accepting prompts from my readers. Just leave your suggestions with your reviews.

Thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 4: Vampire

**DISCLAIMER: All Naruto characters belong to Kishimoto**

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><p><span>Vampire<span>

(Prompt from SomebodyLost)

Upon hearing the soft rustling of the leaves, Sakura barely managed to glance behind her before she felt arms grasping her waist and taking her away. In the next second, she was flying. When running at such an incredible speed, Sakura knew that this was what flying must have felt.

Beneath the sound of the whistling wind, Sakura's tinkling laughter echoed. She watched as the trees blurred all around her, their greens and browns mixing together like splattered watercolor paint on a canvas. When she caught a glimpse of a startled owl fly quickly from its branch, she threw her head back in joyous laughter. With her head still thrown back, she stared at the expanse of the pale blue sky above her.

The sky was always so peaceful and so beautiful. And even on those stormy nights when the clouds menacingly gathered together, even then, the sky was beautiful.

Unbeknownst to Sakura, her captor shared a semblance of her thoughts, but he stared at her, not at the sky.

As they burst through the tree line, they landed deftly and softly in a field of flowers. Slowly and just a bit unwillingly, Sakura's captor released her from his hold. Resettling her bare feet on the ground, she giggled softly as the grass tickled the soles of her feet. Sparing her surroundings a glance, she smiled at the thousands of yellow poppies dancing under the care of the light breeze.

He always took her to places filled with flowers. But Sakura knew that today was different from all those other times he took her away. Poppies, after all, were her favorite.

Finally meeting the eyes of her captor, her smile brightened and a faint blush washed across her cheeks when she noticed that he was already gazing at her.

Wounding her arms around his neck, she closed her eyes and laid her head against his chest. Her captor followed suit by encircling his arms around her waist and placing his chin gently atop her pink hair. Standing in a field of yellow poppies with her dress fluttering against the wind and the dews on the grass glittering from the morning sun, she murmured, "I've missed you, Itachi."

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><p>Against the coldness of his skin, Itachi felt Sakura shiver ever so slightly as he welcomed the warmth of her embrace. Even after all these years, Itachi still couldn't believe why Sakura did not recoil under his touch the same way other people did. When he had asked her some time ago, she had laughed as if the answer to his question had been so obvious – "I love you," she had said.<p>

Oh, how long had it been?

* * *

><p>The first time Itachi saw her, she was no more than eight years of age. It had been raining heavily and back then, she had been wearing a tattered dress with her hair and her face covered in grime.<p>

From the alley across the street, a hooded man was skulking forward with eyes as red as the blood that dripped from the corners of his lips. The man's eyes wandered over to the pink-haired girl that stood with her head bowed down as the rain poured over her miserable form.

The girl did not move from her position even as the man approached her. At that point, Itachi was about to ignore the girl. After all, anyone who didn't have the sense to at least run from danger deserved to die. Even though running would have been futile, it would have at least been a sign of one's desire to survive. And that man with the glowing red eyes, he was so much more than danger.

But as the man prepared to attack the defenseless little girl, she finally looked up from the ground. Her eyes, however, did not even stray towards the man with fangs bared ready for the kill. Rather, her eyes trailed over to Itachi's escaping form.

Perhaps it was the lack of fear in her eyes that made Itachi pause in the act of abandoning the girl to her once vicious fate. Or perhaps it was the purity and the honesty that was reflected in those eyes that made Itachi stop in his tracks. Eyes that showed an untainted soul despite the obviously cruel hand she had been dealt. Whatever the reason, under the pouring gray skies in an equally gray village, the girl's emerald eyes shone with something akin to a promise.

Within a split second, Itachi stood behind the man that had been prepared to attack the green-eyed girl. Itachi reached forward, and the man spluttered as a hand tore threw his chest. Pulling his heart out, Itachi watched the man crumble like a broken puppet to the ground.

Itachi paused as he waited for the resounding scream from the surely terrified child. But when a few seconds passed and the only sounds he could hear were the girl's heart and the rain, Itachi glanced down.

A streak of blood was splattered over the girl's face, but otherwise, her expression remained unchanged.

Arching a brow, Itachi asked, "Are you not afraid of me, child?"

Slowly, the girl shook her head.

"Do you know what I am?" he asked much carefully. The existence of his kind was not a secret to the villagers. Surely the girl should have known that fear was the only appropriate response.

The girl paused before answering. "You're a vampire."

"And you're still not afraid?"

This time, the girl closed her eyes when she replied. "Mama and papa were killed by a vampire. But you saved me even if you're a vampire." Opening her eyes, she looked Itachi in the eyes as she declared, "I'm not afraid of you. Not when you saved me despite being a vampire."

Itachi pursed his lips at the little girl's admission. He didn't know whether to marvel at the ease at which she trusted others in spite of her brutal backstory, or to the laugh at the stupidity of her budding ideals.

"The only time your eyes should be at the ground is when you are falling, otherwise, use them to know where your enemies are hiding." With that piece of advice, Itachi moved to leave. Yet as he turned, a small hand clutched at his fingers.

Itachi's breath hitched. A human had never touched him. They always flinched back at the first sight of Itachi and his kind. But this girl…this girl clung to him as if he was not a vampire…as if he was just another _human_.

Craning his neck backwards, Itachi sighed when he noted that the girl was not planning on releasing him anytime soon. Turning around completely, he bent down on one knee and faced the girl.

"What is your name, child?" he inquired.

The little one's eyes widened and a smile adorned her face when she answered. "Sakura," she said brightly.

"Itachi," he offered.

And under the pelleting rain, a green-eyed Sakura and a red-eyed Itachi met.

* * *

><p>She was sixteen when he realized that he loved her. She was sixteen when a human boy asked her to return his affections. She was sixteen when he believed she might leave him to marry the human boy. She was sixteen when Itachi thought he felt his dead heart beat once again.<p>

They were sitting in a clearing with wild flowers growing sporadically around them. She was making a wreath of flowers when she told him about the human boy.

"I saw Lee-san at the market today, Itachi," she said as she strung together the flowers in her hand.

"Hn." He thought she was just telling him another story about the villagers. After all, Sakura loved people and in return, they seemed to love her just as much. How would those same people feel when they found out that their beloved Sakura spent her days with a vampire?

"Anyways, he professed his love for me," she proclaimed calmly.

Sakura didn't notice how Itachi's entire body had stiffened at her words.

Itachi always knew that he would lose her one day. Humans were such fragile creatures and Sakura was no exception. But this…this was unexpected. A boy…a human boy might take her away from him.

For a moment, Itachi considered doing something that would remind people of the nature of his kind. Itachi knew the boy that Sakura mentioned. He imagined the boy with his thick eyebrows and bowl-cut hair, and he thought about sinking his fangs in the boy's neck until every last drop of blood was gone. For a moment, Itachi considered the deplorable act.

But he remembered Sakura and any thoughts of the dead boy vanished. Over the years, Sakura had changed Itachi. He wasn't going to lie and pretend that he no longer attacked humans because at the end of the day, Itachi was still a vampire and blood was necessary for his survival. He, however, admitted that he was a little less cruel than his past self. Perhaps even a little kinder.

So Itachi forcibly shook away any thoughts of eliminating the boy and instead, prepared himself for the moment when Sakura would declare that she was abandoning him for _Lee-san_.

"Do you…share his sentiments?" As the words left his mouth, Itachi thought he felt his dead heart crack.

Smiling ruefully, Sakura shook her head. "I told him that I could not return his love." She paused and threaded two flowers together. "I told him I was already in love with someone else."

When she raised her head to look at him, Itachi realized that he loved her too.

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><p>And now at the present time, Sakura was nineteen years of age and she had grown beautifully. Sometimes, when the boys around the village allowed their gazes to linger on her form a little too long, Itachi thought she might have grown too beautifully.<p>

Moving his hands from her waist and up to her shoulders, Itachi gently pushed her away. Cupping her face in his hands, Itachi leaned down to place a whisper of a kiss on her lips. When he pulled back, Sakura's eyes fluttered open and she seemed dazed.

The ever-present smirk on Itachi's face transformed into the smallest of smiles. Pulling her close to his body once more, Itachi could feel the thundering beat of Sakura's heart. Had his own heart been alive, it would have likely jolted out of his chest.

At nineteen years, Sakura's eyes still shone like bright emeralds with a promise still glinting in them.

At nineteen years, Itachi finally said, "I love you."


End file.
